Things like this are what happen when I have other media to kill time while I work. I listen to Dresden Files audio books while I'm fence painting, I have Gargoyles playing while I do house cleaning, I have the 2003 TMNT playing while I do freelance design work, and somewhere around midnight, this coalesces. It probably didn't help that I just got the Dresden Files RPG at around the same time. And after reacquainting myself with Weisman's Spectacular Spider-Man, I just had to throw it into the mix as well.Whether madness or awesome, I will let you all be the judge. Also, the full sized version of the above picture is available for those that want it here.

In any case, this is a proposed RPG setting that combines the Dresden Files, Gargoyles, Spectacular Spider-Man and the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universes together into one place, ironing out the kinks and then throwing in a few more goodies, like Castlevania, Captain Marvel/Shazam and Splatterhouse. There'll be allowances for certain things, such as the Turtles and Gargoyles being willing to use lethal force if they have to, though they are reluctant to do so most of the time. Still, the Turtles are martial artists carrying bladed weaponry, and they're prepared to use them to whatever extent is needed to defeat their opponents.

So without further ado, the points of interest I plan on addressing over the next few days, or weeks if there's enough interest.

The DGNT-verse is an urban fantasy setting of the type favored by its component settings, namely that the supernatural world exists just below the surface of what is known as the mortal world, with said mortal world almost completely ignorant of the goings on of said supernatural world. A key difference is that not everything that would differentiate the DGNT-verse from our world is happening in the shadows.

For one thing, there are superheroes. A fair bit of them in fact, flying, swinging, leaping or otherwise traveling around in brightly colored costumes fighting against the forces of evil. For the most part, superhumans tend to be on the power level of the characters of Spectacular Spider-Man or the Incredibles, but the top 10% of the superhuman population have some real power, such as the Justice Force that stood against the Triceraton invasion.

In addition to superhumans, technology is also a bit more advanced in the DGNT-verse, at least for certain people. The average citizen only has access to the same tech their real world counterparts might have, but those with the right combination of wealth and brilliance, say extremely wealthy private corporations like Xanatos Enterprises or the Cyberbiotics corporation, have substantially greater options. Power armor, particle beam weapons, nanotechnology, vehicles with VTOL and submersible capabilities, genetic manipulation, cybernetics, robotics, all are available for the right people. This more advanced technology is a result of the alien Utrom's attempts to escape Earth, though whether this technological influence was by accident or design, no one can say. The end result is the same either way, that a small group of people on the planet have access to incredibly advanced technology.

Ironically, the presence of both superhumans and rare advanced technology only reinforces vanilla mortal's disbelief in the supernatural. After all, if they see something scary in the shadows doing inhuman things like climbing up the side of a building or ripping through walls, then it was probably some superhuman they haven't heard of doing something for reasons only they understood. Take the above mentioned Triceraton invasion. Most people don't think that the Triceratons were aliens, and figure they were either robots or some weird bio-engineered life forms created by some supervillain. After all, humanoid Triceratops? Clearly it was just some bad guy screwing with the world again. It didn't help that a half dozen villains would later claim credit for the invasion. And that's for something that doesn't have anything to do with the supernatural world. Much like the Dresden-verse, they are all too happy to classify things as odd but explainable, and with superhumans and robots being a well known factor in the world, they have more things they can explain away the oddities as.

Regarding the supernatural world, the Dresden Files serves as the primary blueprints for the layout of the DGNT-verse, but there are some changes as well.

For instance, Oberon is a part of the Faerie Courts, but he is much like the Sun and the Moon, he exists at all times of the year, and as such is equally involved in both Courts, and married to both Queens. Power wise, he's on the same level as the Mothers, meaning only particularly powerful gods, demon lords, Old Ones, the Fallen and Archangels are a match for him. He is not one to be trifled with.

Similarly, the Black Court are a little different, being based off of the Castlevania vampires, with Dracula being the actual 'Drakul' as well as the Dracula of the Stoker book. In this case, all of the Vampire Courts can trace their lineage back to Dracula, with each of the Courts having a different responsibility to him. The Black Court are his elite, and are the closest to him in form and power. The Red Court are the warriors, the blood drinkers, the front line fighters of Dracula's forces. The White Court are the infiltrators, seducers, sowing discord and confusion amongst Dracula's enemies, and occasionally serving as diplomats when the Dark Lord needed them. The Jade Court are his mystics, his lore keepers, his esoteric masters of dark forces.

Likewise, while the events of Stoker's book did occur, the White Council had him edit it to give mortal men the courage to face Black Court Vampires, most of whom were about as powerful as the Dracula chronicled in the book. Stoker had to leave out how much more powerful than the average Black Court Vampire Dracula is, or the fact that it took a coalition of vampire slayers, including a Belmont and several Wardens, to put Dracula down. Or that Dracula was raised a few years later by the wizard Shaft, which led to the events of Symphony of the Night.

So while things will be very familiar, expect more than a few surprises along the way.

But on the whole, it's a world of high flying heroes, advanced technology, secret supernatural forces and a growing darkness that people are only now starting to see. It is a world that, more than ever, needs heroes.

I did a world a couple of years ago in which Dracula had conspired with other vampires to alter the smog infesting the skies so that it cut off the dangerous influences of the sun and Vampires could operate in daylight. Use it as you will.

Ares wrote:Ironically, the presence of both superhumans and rare advanced technology only reinforces vanilla mortal's disbelief in the supernatural. After all, if they see something scary in the shadows doing inhuman things like climbing up the side of a building or ripping through walls, then it was probably some superhuman they haven't heard of doing something for reasons only they understood. Take the above mentioned Triceraton invasion. Most people don't think that the Triceratons were aliens, and figure they were either robots or some weird bio-engineered life forms created by some supervillain. After all, humanoid Triceratops? Clearly it was just some bad guy screwing with the world again. It didn't help that a half dozen villains would later claim credit for the invasion. And that's for something that doesn't have anything to do with the supernatural world. Much like the Dresden-verse, they are all too happy to classify things as odd but explainable, and with superhumans and robots being a well known factor in the world, they have more things they can explain away the oddities as.

This is actually a pretty good explanation for supernatural skepticism in an otherwise fantastic universe. I believe there's a similar mental framework in the Marvel and DC universe, which is why most people assume Thor is just a regular Super with a Viking motif rather then the actual Norse God of Thunder.

well, technicly, Dracula's defeat in the book was followed up in CV: bloodlines, when he was ress'd by Drolta Tzuentes & Elizabeth Bathroy and defeated by John Morris (seeing as richter belmont fought Drac in the late 1700's, and the events of the novel take place over 100 years later)

Kreuzritter wrote:well, technicly, Dracula's defeat in the book was followed up in CV: bloodlines, when he was ress'd by Drolta Tzuentes & Elizabeth Bathroy and defeated by John Morris (seeing as richter belmont fought Drac in the late 1700's, and the events of the novel take place over 100 years later)

I'm tweaking things a little regarding the Castlevania timeline. For me, Symphony of the Night almost seemed like the best stopping point for the series, at the end, it's as much about Alucard's attempt to save his father's soul, to remind him of the love Dracula once held for Alucard's mother, so forth and so on. I'll get into more details with my write up on the Vampire Clans, Dracula in particular, but suffice to say that Alucard did manage to redeem his father's soul, and that part of Dracula has gone on to whatever lies after to be with Alucard's mother.

The problem is that the power that animates Dracula is too powerful, too primal and too potent to be killed off in that manner, so Dracula will be coming back, if he hasn't done so already. And when he does, there will be no humanity, no spark of good, no soul, nothing redeemable at all. Alucard, for all his good intentions, will have unleashed something truly horrible on the world.

Well isn't that a cheerful conclusion to an unfortunate series of events - although would this . . . thing actually be Dracula per se, rather than just a nameless force looking for some vessel to fill and define it anew?

Founder of H.E.R.O.I.C, Complimenter-in-Chief, Co-Arch Henchman to the Grin, Servant of the Hoff!

Libra wrote:Well isn't that a cheerful conclusion to an unfortunate series of events - although would this . . . thing actually be Dracula per se, rather than just a nameless force looking for some vessel to fill and define it anew?

Yep, it's still Dracula, in form and thought and memory, but the idea I'd put forth is that for the longest time, there was something good inside of Dracula, something a woman named Lisa once touched and nurtured, to the point that if not for her untimely death, might have undone the vampire courts then and there. Something that almost died with her when she was unjustly put to death, and something his son spent centuries trying to save. Something that, eventually, his son DID save, and that during one last defeat, passed on into the afterlife peacefully. The problem is that, without that spark of goodness, what's left is Dracula when he was at his absolute worst, a cold, calculating monster with nothing left to redeem or appeal to, because that that part of him is literally dead.

Though after re-familiarizing myself with the Castlevania timeline, I might keep things mostly as is, and merely have the Stoker event be what happened after Dracula was brought back after Symphony of the Night, and why it necessitated so many powerful heroes to go after and kill him, because the Count was an ever bigger threat than ever. It could also be why the Council had Stoker write his adaptation of events. I'll have to think on it.

Fair enough - I'll admit that my mental image of The Count starts and ends with the book in which he made his debut and I've never been able to understand the cult of popular culture which has grown up around him since; Stoker's Dracula is a soulless, murderous predatory b------ whose only positive quality (by no means a redeeming feature) was a certain eerie politeness.

But that's my mental image of the fiend and quite beside the point.

Please carry on - I can hardly wait to hear how Harry Dresden would react to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Founder of H.E.R.O.I.C, Complimenter-in-Chief, Co-Arch Henchman to the Grin, Servant of the Hoff!

Libra wrote:Fair enough - I'll admit that my mental image of The Count starts and ends with the book in which he made his debut and I've never been able to understand the cult of popular culture which has grown up around him since; Stoker's Dracula is a soulless, murderous predatory b------ whose only positive quality (by no means a redeeming feature) was a certain eerie politeness.

But that's my mental image of the fiend and quite beside the point.

Please carry on - I can hardly wait to hear how Harry Dresden would react to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

At some point a weird romanticism happened to monsters, starting with werewolves where they became sympathetic beings who were trapped by their own nature and struggling with their darkness. Part of it's that whole 'girls want bad boys' thing, part of it's probably this hope most people have that everyone, even the worst monsters, have something good and redeemable in them.

I'm leaning more towards the idea that the Stoker Dracula occurred after Symphony of the Night, and that it was basically Dracula devoid of any humanity, being that soulless, murderous, predatory b***ard with the upbringing of a nobleman. So it's sort of a best of both world's scenarios.

poodle wrote:I guess the challenge will be equating the seriousness of the dresden world with the silliness of TMNT although Gargoyles work well with Dresden and Castlevania.

Actually, this is based off of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, which was decidedly less silly than the 80's show, so much so that in the Turtles Forever crossover movie they lampshaded how downright silly the old show was, almost to an unfair degree. The 2003 series was actually fairly close to the Mirage Comic's early years, and I'm mixing in a fair does of that comic's vibe into the show, such as the Turtles being reluctant but willing to kill if they have to. They aren't as kill happy as the Mirage Turtles, but if someone really needs killing, they'll do it. Heck, the 2003 Turtles had a showdown that ended with Leo decapitating the Shredder (he got better).